Aero assures disengaged workers on payment of N1.9bn

Aero Contractors Nigeria Limited, has given an assurance to no about 600 employees disengaged by the airline in March on the payment of their N1.9 billion entitlement.

The Chief Executive Officer of the airline, Ado Sanusi, gave the assurance while speaking with newsmen in Lagos on Thursday.

Sanusi explained that the decision to lay off the affected workers, which constituted nearly 60 per cent of Aero’s workforce, was taken in the airline’s best interest. The Aero boss said the airline had about 1,300 employees and one or two aircraft in operation when he assumed office in February.

“We are very happy and glad to say that we have increased our aircraft to three and had gotten approval from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to carry out C-Check on series of Boeing 737 aircraft.

“It took us almost eight months to do that and we have the Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility functioning very well. We have been able to recall 120 of the workers on contract basis but as the demand for the facility continues to increase, we hope to engage them permanently. We have also paid about N300 million out of the N2.2 billion to the disengaged workers and have reduced the backlog of staff salaries from seven to four months,” he said.